C6000 Selection

Paul Huter,

Two places for you to look for more information as you go about the task of defining your application requirements:

Go to TI.com, and under Applications click on Video & Imaging. Look through some of the application examples that seem similar to what you want. Check which processors are used for some of those applications, then compare the capabilities of that device with your more finely tuned application requirements.

Go to TI.com, and under Products click on Digital Signal Processors (DSP). Then click on Select a Device to bring up an online selection tool which allows you to make selection based on what you already know about your application. All of the available devices that meet your current criteria will be shown there, and you can refine your search based on new information as you come to define it.

Eventually, you will need specifics on all five of your bullet points. Otherwise, any recommendation would just be a guess.

My guess is the DM6437. But it is not an educated guess.

Regards,
RandyP

Thanks, Randy. I'll look at both places on the TI website.

Randy:

The DM processors are listed as digital video. I'm not sure they would be capable of performing the necessary three-dimensional calculations I need them to do. I just need the processor to analyze a single black and white image and note the location of the white parts to compare to a stored database of points. The processor then needs to be able to perform three-dimensional matrix calculations based on the points.. Am I wrong that the DM processors cannot do these (somewhat) complex calculations quickly?

Thank you.

Paul,

You are very flattering of us on the forum to think we can tell you which process has the power, or not enough power, to do some calculations. Thank you?

When I hear video, I think of our devices designed to capture video, analyze or compress the captured images, and display that video. Sometimes only part of that is required. But there are a lot of variables that you have specified outside of this thread which will dictate which devices might work for you.

The first video applications I ever supported were executed on the DM642. Some video applications require multiple C6678s on a board.

The Selection Tool allows you to separate out the devices that do not have the right peripherals. For example, do you need to capture video from a camera sensor or a YCbCr stream, at D1 or 1080p60 rates?

How much processing performance do you need? The Selection Tool allows you to choose fixed-point (C64x+) or fixed+floating-point (C674x or C66x) and what clock speed you need. Perhaps you only need a Stellaris ARM Cortex-M3 at 50MHz (unlikely) or an ARM Cortex-A8 at 1GHz (doubtful) or one of the DSPs at 300MHz up to 1.25GHz.

From your own analysis of your application, you will create a rough approximation of the mathematical and logical operations required, and how fast you require them to run. You can apply those numbers to the Selection Tool to see which processors will exceed those requirements.

For a starting point, download Code Composer Studio v4 or v5. Simulate at least the core functionality of your application in CCSv4 or CCSv5 (free license for use of the simulator), and see what performance you need. Use library elements from DSPLIB and IMGLIB as often as possible. Other libraries may be useful, too. Look for these in the TI Wiki Pages.

Use the CCS Debug configuration (default) to get the application running correctly, i.e. to debug it. Then use the Release configuration to benchmark it.

Paul Huter said:

Am I wrong that the DM processors cannot do these (somewhat) complex calculations quickly?

Yes, you are wrong. But then, "somewhat", "complex", and "quickly" are vague. So you might be right. My answer is an uneducated guess, but I am still sticking with the DM6437. You could broaden your scope to include the DM3730 if you want more answers from me for you to consider.

Regards,
RandyP

If you need more help, please reply back. If this answers the question, please click  Verify Answer  , below.

Randy:

My biggest problem with using the selection tool, is I don't know what all the options mean. I know what "USB" or a couple of the video modes mean, but I didn't know about the "floating point" or other options. Is there a guide that can help me decipher what all the options actually are, so I can make a better analysis of each of the processors? Your answer leading me to ask this question (about a guide) was really what I needed. I did not actually think anyone on this forum would know (based on my limited requirements) what processor would actually suit me. I was hoping for more guidance in selecting one, and the above answer helped me a lot. If you know of a guide (or do I just search the Internet for each of the options?), that would be great.

Thank you.

Paul,

On 3 levels, I share your frustration with this mountain of data to climb.

1. There are a LOT of devices under TI.com that you can choose from. I only support a couple of families of devices, but I am constantly overwhelmed with the number and nature of new devices. Once I learn about them, I am amazed at the new features and capabilities of each new device. For you as an engineer who wants to build a good product with the best processor choice, the list to choose from is everything TI makes, and you know that somewhere in that list is the right device for you.
2. There is no simple way to find definitions of terms on the Selection Tools. Other web links, like Get Started or Select a Platform, have general high-level words about the different choices you might make, but they do not help with specifics. For example, C6000 says it includes fixed- and floating-point processors, but it does not tell you which labels are for which of those.
3. When there are issues or errors on the web pages, it is hard to even figure out how to report that. I just submitted 4 different error messages, and I hope they went to the right place.

Paul Huter said:

Is there a guide that can help me decipher what all the options actually are, ...or do I just search the Internet for each of the options?

Since there is nothing obvious on the Selection Tool page, I spent some time looking at some of the other links to figure out how we at TI expect an intelligent and motivated customer to figure out which TI processor to use. The Get Started and Select a Platform links lead you to some overview information, which I do recommend you look through, but it does not go down to the level of detail that you really need at this point. And I got side-tracked by a broken link and some mis-labeled device names, which led to frustration #3 above.

We have a ton of material on TI.com and in the TI Wiki Pages about specific devices and tools and how to use different features and even overview information. My opinion after searching through a lot of it manually is to do exactly what you said and search the Internet for each of the options. All of our information is searchable, and when I did a search on C674x, I found several hits that you might find interesting including TI.com sites and other sites that reference our information.

It should not take too much time to read through a few of the articles you find on the Internet and TI.com. And you will likely have more questions after learning more about the options. Keep coming back here as you go through that process. Or start a new thread if you have new questions unrelated to this thread.

With the Selection Tool, you can use as many or as few of the criteria buttons as you think make sense. Clicking anything will narrow down the results, and at some point you will have a reasonable list to look through. I think the first would be about the interface to your video data source: if you need one or more video ports (in or out), that selection will narrow down the list considerably. Many of the other criteria will not matter to you, so leave those unchecked.

Regards,

RandyP

Thanks, Randy. I'll start looking at some of the product pages and TI pages and wikis. I'm sure I'll be able to narrow down my selection with the information you have provided me.